The U.S. Department of Justice has closed its four-year investigation into whether Aurora’s police and fire departments engaged in a “pattern and practice” of discriminatory hiring and will not sanction the city, Mayor Steve Hogan said.

The Justice Department launched its probe in July 2009, citing concern that the percentage of black and Latino police and firefighters was much lower than in like-sized cities. The agency later expanded its investigation to study whether the police department’s fitness test discriminated against women.

Hogan said federal authorities extensively interviewed city officials and police and fire command staff and pored over thousands of documents as part of their investigation. A letter to the city from Hector F. Ruiz Jr., a senior trial attorney in the Justice Department’s employee litigation section, said the investigation had closed but offered no other details.

The agency’s investigation could have resulted in a court-ordered consent decree to guide hiring, as has been the case for Denver police since 1975. The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment about its decision Tuesday.

“I am pleased the Department of Justice did not find a basis to take action against the city based on our employment practices,” Hogan wrote in a statement Monday night. “”We have taken great strides to improve our process, but the work is not done.”

The inquiry prompted city officials to make several changes to the hiring process, including awarding more points on the civil-service exam to those who are fluent in more than one language.

The civil service test itself is now entirely video-based, to ease concerns that the written portion and oral interviews weren’t objective. The department builds its list of candidates based on those who score the highest.

But even with the changes and recruiting efforts, Aurora’s police and fire departments have reported only small strides toward diversifying their ranks. The 669-member police force is more than 85 percent white, 7.3 percent Latino and 3.9 percent black, according to data the city released Tuesday.

In a city where 52 percent of residents are minorities, nearly 82 percent of its 312 firefighters are white, 7 percent are Latino and 4.5 percent are black.

That’s not a marked change from when the Justice Department launched its probe. At that time, the police force was 85.3 percent white, 6.9 percent Latino and 4.3 percent black. Among firefighters, 78.6 percent were white, 5 percent were Latino and 3 percent were black.

“Rest assured that Aurora will continue to look for additional ways to improve and ensure that equal opportunity is always at the forefront of the hiring process,” Hogan said.

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